


The Messes

by Kivan



Series: Andreil Week 2019 [4]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Andreil Week 2019, Established Relationship, Hijinks & Shenanigans, M/M, No Animals Were Harmed In The Writing Of This Prompt Work, Sorry About The Tree Though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-26 01:19:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19757656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kivan/pseuds/Kivan
Summary: It is rare still that Neil allows himself to become inebriated. Usually the night will end with no issues and Neil will sleep late the next morning and Andrew doesn’t care- really. But sometimes… Sometimes, Andrew wakes up, and there are messes.





	The Messes

**Author's Note:**

> For Andreil Week 2019.  
> Prominently displaying this writer's inability to construct a plot based on a prompt.

Day4-The Messes

It was eleven by the time Nicky came stumbling into the room. Andrew was already halfway through his third cigarette near the window, and Kevin and Neil still asleep in their beds in the next room.

Nicky doesn’t pause between the dorm doorway and the fridge before pulling out the milk and turning to coerce the coffee pot into brewing another mug. Andrew may have been amused, if he weren’t already annoyed. He may have applauded his cousin’s ability to pseudo function in the morning, as well. But Andrew was more annoyed.

It takes a full four minutes for a mug to fill and Nicky to drench it in milk before he turns to the rest of the room, and the mug stops half way to his lips. Nervously, all the sudden Nicky glances to where Andrew sits and then back to the center of the room. “Uh,” he begins, swallowing thickly, then he swallows a gulp of coffee before he starts again with, “Uh, Andrew.” He narrows his eyes at the mess and then glances at Andrew, as if trying to reconcile Andrew with the mess. “What happened,” Nicky asks finally, a few sips- from what is more than likely Kevin’s mug- later.

Andrew exhales toward the window, “Ask Neil.”

Nicky blinks once, and then turns back to the mess. He swallows another gulp of coffee and says, “I guess I’m sorry I got you guys a shag rug.”

It's Matt, for some reason, who enters next. Andrew finishes his second cup of coffee and reconciles himself with the mess by this point. He’s just come to terms with his decision to not clean it up barely moments before Matt pushed the unlocked door open. The large backliner has a mug in his hand and looks ready to say something before he sees it.

“Whoa,” he says, looking quickly around the room and then finding Andrew still by the window. “What’s all this?”

Andrew, perusal, does not answer. He doesn’t dislike Boyd really. It’s just principle.

As just stated, he’s cleaned his hands of this mess.

It’s not his fault. Really, it’s probably Boyd’s. Or Reynolds’. They should stop attempting to force culture on Neil without expecting some kind of backlash as this point.

Boyd carefully steps into the room, regardless of Andrew’s non-answer and turning to survey the mess from another side nods slowly. “I see it now,” he says, tilting his head, but then his brow knits and Andrew can feel more questions nearly coming out his mouth.

“Ask Neil,” he answers before Boyd can ask.

Matt looks at him for a long moment and then back to the mess before sighing, “Oh. Sorry, man.”

“Stop apologizing for every stupid thing he does,” Andrew snaps, annoyance bubbling up.

“I didn’t think he was that drunk,” Boyd tells him anyway and Andrew rolls his eyes before pulling out another cigarette.

It is rare still that Neil allows himself to become inebriated. He’s only become drunk a handful of times at Eden’s, but more regularly he will drink in the basement common room with the team as they watch old movies and socialize. Andrew rarely attends, but Neil will generally join them for at least part of the night.

Usually the night will end with no issues and Neil will sleep late the next morning and Andrew doesn’t care- _really_.

But sometimes…

Sometimes, Andrew wakes up, and there are messes.

Much like this morning.

He’s talked to Bee about it even. She’d told him it showed progress for Neil. That he felt comfortable with his teammates and in their dorm.

Until Andrew tells her about the messes, Bee is all for it. But she hasn’t come up with a reply still about the time Neil broke into the pet in Columbia and released all the kittens after watching Aristocrats with Allison. Andrew hadn’t allowed teammates to Columbia since. Drunk Neil even deleted all the footage from the store cameras. If he hadn’t remembered the next morning, no one would have known. But Neil always remembers.

She also had nothing good to say about the time he took the broom from the dorm room and lit it on fire in the back courtyard after watching Fantasia, though this incident was much less of a felony.

“What movie was it,” Andrew asks, and Boyd at least looks chastised.

“Finding Nemo,” he answers, and Andrew nearly growls.

When Neil finally wakes up just before one in the afternoon, and he stops in the bedroom doorway.

He shakes his head even as he looks down at the mess. “At least is didn’t have water in it,” he murmurs and Andrew huffs. Neil jumps and then grins at him sheepishly, “Morning?”

He says it like a question.

“Where did you get it,” Andrew asks, voice heavy with annoyance.

Neil pauses and then looks back at the mess, toes poking at the brightly colored pebbles nearest the door. “You know that Mexican restaurant down the block.”

Andrew sighs heavily by way of answer.

Suddenly Neil jumps and then vaults for the couch, and hollers, “I think there was a snake in it.”

“Are you fucking kidding me,” Andrew hears himself yell back, “You didn’t check?”

“I was _drunk_ , Andrew,” Neil complains back.

“You can erase video evidence, but not _remember if there was a snake in the aquarium you stole_?”

“I didn’t _steal_ it,” Neil snips back, still standing on the back of the couch, “I would have taken it back.”

“It’s broken” Andrew insists, pulling his legs up onto the table under him, “All over the floor, with the snake, that _may_ have been inside, now lost- how are you going to return that?”

“I didn’t know you wanted a pet snake ‘Drew,” Neil pushes back, “Because if we don’t return it, that’s what you’ll have.”

Andrew glares across the room at him.

Neil stares back for a minute before his eyes drops and he sighs. “Sorry,” he says now instead, “I wanted to save Nemo.”

“Nemo isn’t a snake,” Andrew informs him.

“When did you see it,” Neil asks.

“I haven’t,” Andrew snaps back, “Everyone knows he’s a fucking clown fish.”

“I didn’t,” Neil tells him.

“Obviously,” Andrew spits, “You grabbed the _snake_ aquarium.”

“I think they’re called terrariums when they don’t have water in them,” Neil ponders.

“Too bad drunk you didn’t know that last night,” Andrew tells him.

“Yeah,” Neil shoots back and then prompts deflates, “ _Yeah_ , that’s fair.” He sinks down to sit on the back of the couch now and runs a hand though his hair.

Andrew does not get distracted.

Or less annoyed.

“You left the door open,” he says instead, and Neil almost looks more alarmed at the idea, before he bounds of the couch and heads for the door.

“Shit,” Neil yelps grabbing his shoes and tugging them on, “Help me warn the others?”

Andrew doesn’t move.

He’s already decided to wash his hands of this, like the burning broom that burnt down a campus sapling and the news story about the loose kittens in Colombia. He won’t be moved.

But then Neil glances over his shoulder and grins sheepishly at him and Andrew can see that horrid word on his face.

Even now, Neil doesn’t say it.

Regardless of drunk Neil’s strange impulses and completely obliterated inhibitions- he still won’t say Andrew’s most hated words.

Taking a deep breath Andrew slides off the table and joins Neil at the door, because this is Neil’s mess. And Andrew is almost fond of these kinds of messes.


End file.
